'He's a worker': Ball-magnet Nick Pechous makes Regina's offense run

Iowa City Regina junior Nick Pechous takes a shot against Solon during the Class 1A quarterfinal round of the 2017 Iowa high school boys' state soccer tournament at Cownie Soccer Park in Des Moines on Thursday. Pechous scored twice, and Regina won the match 3-0.(Photo: Bryon Houlgrave/The Register)

Three kids dressed in black surround one dressed in white as he sprints across the penalty box. He pokes the ball through the maze of legs, contorts around everyone without breaking pace ... and regains possession.

Now, three confused kids dressed in black can only hope as they watch the kid dressed in white shoot on goal.

There was no such luck in the second half, when Pechous netted two goals and Regina cruised to a 3-0 win in the Class 1A state soccer tournament quarterfinals.

Pechous made that kind of offensive magic all season as central midfielder for the 14-5 Regals. The junior and his ball-magnet feet weaved through defenses to the tune of a team-high 18 goals and 43 regular-season points.

"He played very, very well," Regina coach Rick Larew said after Thursday's quarterfinal. "And at the very end when he went back in, he said, ‘Let me play up top.’ Because normally he’s our central midfielder. Then he went up there — I think he watched what was going on, saw an opening and took advantage of it."

Soccer runs in the Pechous family. His older brother, Zack, was a senior defender on Regina’s 2011 state title team. The two grew up playing any and every sport in the giant yard of their Iowa City farm.

But soccer was always the main event.

"We played two different positions. I was a defender and he was an offensive guy, so he would always try to beat me, and I would always try to beat him," said Zack Pechous, an assistant coach for Regina. "I had no skill on the ball. That’s what’s developed him as a player today. He just takes it and he works hard. He thinks it’s me out there trying to defend him, so that’s why he wants to beat (the defender).

"A lot, a lot of practice. He’s out there every day, working with the ball, sweating and everything else."

Nick has played for the Iowa Soccer Club since he was 8. But he first began playing in the Iowa City Kickers league when he was 4 or 5.

Zack remembers watching Nick play, and noticing that, right away, it was clear his little brother had a future in soccer.

"When he played Kickers, there was one time I came to a game and my dad and I asked, ‘Where’s Nick?’ ‘Oh, he’s playing goalie,’" he said. "He never played goalie. And all of a sudden he runs up the field and he’s scoring goals and the coach is just yelling, ‘You can’t do that! You can’t do that!’ He just took it up and took him on."

Pechous quietly scored three goals over 17 games (six starts) in his freshman year. He made more noise as a sophomore, logging 17 goals and 40 points — both the fourth-most by a sophomore in the state.

"It’s just my determination to win the ball," Pechous said when asked why he plays offense so effectively. "I know that these guys look up to me on the team. Kids from elementary look up to me as one of the leaders, so I want to do my best to make them better, too.

"You've got to keep shooting. If the first one doesn't go in, you've got to keep trying again and again and again. If you miss 99 out of 100 shots, you still make one of them."

Regina hasn’t won a state title since 2013. Top-seeded Dyersville Beckman (19-1) has hoisted every trophy since then — and that’s who the Regals play in Friday’s semifinals.

But Pechous has played on a state champ roster before. … Sort of.

As a fifth-grader, Pechous was Regina’s ball boy when it beat Solon for the 1A crown in 2011. He watched his big brother win it all from the sideline.

Now big brother gets to watch Nick try to do the same.

"He’s a worker," Zack Pechous said. "He tries. This is his life. He works, works hard, and he deserves it."

Matthew Bain covers preps, recruiting and the Hawkeyes for the Iowa City Press-Citizen, The Des Moines Register and HawkCentral. Contact him at mbain@gannett.com and follow him on Twitter at @MatthewBain_.